


A Day In the Life

by _jamjar (phizzle)



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-08
Updated: 2004-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-07 20:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzle/pseuds/_jamjar





	A Day In the Life

11am

"Billy," Dom grinned, "did you know it's my birthday today?"

"No, Dom, I didn't," Billy replied, innocent look in his eyes (with a twinkle). "How old are you, now?"

"Twenty-nine," he said with a proud flourish. Billy's eyes crinkled at the edges.

"And you don't look a day over thirty-six," Billy patted his head. Dom laughed, swatted him.

"Git."

"I love you."

Dom stopped. He blinked, and for one shining, almost-second, the world halted and he sealed those words, the way Billy had said them, in his memory. Then sound moved again.

"Aww. I love you too."

Billy just beamed.

***

12noon

How was it so bloody difficult to say those words? Billy had been trying, trying so hard, for more years than he cared to remember. He'd given up way back when Ali came along. He didn't even try again when she left, tears running down her face, saying she knew there was someone else. Billy had protested, but he knew.

There had always been someone else for him. Someone close, under his nose, but – and here's the thing – Dom meant so _much_ to him, how could he say anything? He couldn't stand, even for a second, to think about what would happen if he lost Dom even a little.

Sometimes, it slipped out. He could pass it off, pretend he just meant _as a friend_, but he knew he didn't just mean that. He meant more.

An hour since his last slip, and he was still shaking.

***

1pm

The director called lunch, and Dom headed for catering. Munching a sandwich, he noticed Billy standing chatting to one of the makeup girls. He riffled through his mind, came up with one point of the script he wanted to talk to Billy about, and sauntered over.

"Bills, there you are," formed in his throat, but got stuck half-way along with a wadge of tomato. He stopped, a few paces away from Billy and the girl, who he had noticed had their hands on each other's hips.

Billy wasn't one for kissing in public, a fact Dom was rather grateful for. But the angle of their bodies, the way they were looking at each other ... when Billy led her away from the tent, Dom had trouble swallowing the tomato. He coughed, began to choke, and was strangely glad he had an excuse for the tears in his eyes.

***

2pm

She was pretty, she was soft, she was nice, she kissed well. Billy decided he liked her, and maybe he'd like to kiss her a little more.

_She isn't Dom_, a voice murmured in his head.

_Shut up_, he whispered fiercely back.

"Hmm?" She looked at him, confused. Billy blinked, realising he'd hissed the words out loud.

"Uh. Sorry. Not you," he blushed, leaning in to kiss her again.

He looked for Dom when he got back to set, eyes automatically seeking out his hair, even wilder than usual for this part; they'd written Dom's character in this film as scruffy, the way Dom liked to be. _The way that makes me want to run my fingertips over his rough jaw, wonder what it'd feel like to kiss him with the scruff..._ He shook his head.

Dom wasn't here anyway. He came in ten minutes late from lunch, eyes red, muttering something about allergies. Billy soothed him, told him he'd be okay and he was here if he needed him. Dom smiled.

_Did I imagine the hurt in his eyes?_

***

3pm

Dom concentrated. This was a good scene, one they'd laughed hysterically at when they wrote it. It felt good to be working together again, slip into their characters, find that space where the lines of their comedy timing fitted.

_All our lines fit_, Dom knew. _The lines of our writing, our creativity, our acting, everything about us. The lines of our bodies when we're close._

He squashed the thought, a vision of Billy leading the girl out of the catering tent rising until he felt faintly sick. He shook himself, helmed his character, and slid into place with Billy's.

"Good scene," Billy clapped him on the shoulder after the sixth take. "Think we nailed it that time." The director was fiddling with something, but nodded at Billy's words.

"Alright, guys, let's move on, Scene 28, where are the extras?"

Dom wasn't needed for most of this scene. He sat to the side, watching Billy, the way he moved, the way he could be perfectly still or moving quickly, depending on what was right for that moment.

Billy was a good actor. One of the things Dom loved about him. And suddenly, out of nowhere, he began to wonder.

***

4pm

Billy knew Dom had been watching him for the past hour, and between takes he'd seen the look on his face, before he hid it with a smile and a thumbs up. He knew the look Dom got when he was deep in thought, and he'd had it for the past twenty takes or so. They were nearly through with the scene, and it was almost Dom's cue.

He telegraphed silently, _Dom, get your arse up here, it's your cue in a second._

Dom telegraphed back, _Shit, thanks, Bills._ Stood, made his way silently to his entrance wing on the set.

The bartender uttered the cue, and Dom's character made his entrance, lines delivered _from the diaphragm_, and Billy held down his rising amusement. There was something about Dom making him laugh that gave him this feeling, like he was filling slowly with helium and butterflies and things that tingled and sent something warm down his spine.

Things never felt so right as when Dom was making him laugh. Except maybe when he was doing the same to Dom.

***

5pm

There were so many things adding together, in a section of Dom's mind. One part of it was sending streams and streams of messages, looks, words, gestures, things it had obviously been hoarding where the rest of his mind couldn't get to it. Another part was taking the streams, adding them up, ordering them by chronology, by colour, by smell, and some by touch. Those were the ones giving Dom a physical sensation like cotton on his skin. Like breath on his.

He didn't know if he should trust it yet. It certainly didn't surprise him that he'd been cataloguing every look, word and gesture Billy had ever directed his or anyone in his presence's way. Nor did it surprise him that his mind was organising them now. But what he couldn't trust, couldn't hope for any more, was the pattern that was emerging.

_I'm looking at the data. I'm quantifying the evidence. I'm examining what I have. All signs thus far point to this: **Billy loves me**._

_I know I love Billy. I've loved him since I met him. But he's straight. I've known that for as long as I've known where **he's** concerned, I'm **not**._

_Do I trust this? Do I let myself hope, potentially make a fool of myself?_

_Potentially get to kiss him?_

_What do I do?_

***

6pm

He didn't know what was up with Dom today. He'd been acting funny for hours now, but Billy thought, well, it's the man's birthday and he's nearing thirty, and –

_Shite._ Suddenly and without even a cold trickle of warning, a thought came to him. _What if Dom grows old and I don't get to be with him for it?_

Panic. Sheer, blind panic. Billy hadn't been thinking much about the future, beyond the next few years. You can't, really, when you're an actor, the uncertainty of where your next job might come from would be so appalling you'd hide under the covers. Or make incredibly bad decisions. Billy lived for each day, was lucky if he knew what his next few projects were, and would deal with the future when it arrived. He knew Dom lived the same way, but.

Billy wanted to be there when Dom reached thirty. He wanted to wake up next to him, on his thirtieth birthday, and tell him it wasn't that bad. He wanted to be there when Dom found his first grey hair, and came running in from the bathroom in a panic. He wanted to soothe him, hold him, remind him of all the silver-haired actors that command fantastic roles.

He wanted Dom to be there when he found his own grey hair. He wanted Dom to kiss his head when he was balding and tell him he still looked sexy as hell.

More to the point, he wanted to be with Dom _now_. Five seconds ago, six years ago, three months ago.

_Fuck. What do I do?_

***

7pm

They wrapped suspiciously early. Or rather, Dom_would_ have been suspicious if he hadn't been too busy in his own thoughts. He made his way to the car, bundled into his coat, smiling a little at the Christmas lights draped over the studio doors. He raised his key fob to unlock his car, when he noticed shadows ahead of him.

"Dom, there you are," Billy called, and Dom's heart for a moment didn't know whether to slow down again or speed up even faster. It settled for the steady drumbeat it was at now, staccato pulse racing.

"Billy?"

"Yeah. Listen, I went past your car just now, you've got two flat tyres." Billy was level with him now, green eyes seeming almost to gleam in the darkness. "I'll give you a lift home."

"_What?_ Who did that? Are they tampered with, was it rocks…" Dom tried to turn, look at his car, but Billy's hand was on his arm, steering him towards his own.

"Don't worry about it, I've got someone to come and fix it. Just leave it here, it'll be fine, I'll drive you."

Dom let himself be almost dragged to Billy's car. "Alright. But I don't really want to go home just yet."

Billy grinned. "Me neither. Let's have a drink somewhere. I've _got_ to buy you a drink, it's your birthday!"

"I never even got a cake," Dom muttered as he sat down, buckling his seatbelt. Billy said nothing, he just drove. For, a while, a route Dom didn't recognise. "Where are we going?"

"Oh, just this bar I want to check out," Billy said, casually. Dom nodded, lost in thought again now he was close to Billy.

Very close. The car was slowly filling up with Billy's scent, and Dom breathed in.

He opened his eyes when they stopped. "Are we here?"

"Yep, here we are." Billy stepped out, moving around the car to hold Dom's door open for him.

"Why thank you," Dom beamed, getting out. Billy hugged him, a proper Billyhug, the kind Dom wanted desperately at three o'clock in the morning when there were noises he tried to account for; the kind he saved up in his memory when he got them; the kind that took him by surprise at times like this. He hugged back, squeezing.

Billy walked behind him up to the bar, so that Dom opened the door. Immediately on emerging into the room, there was an almighty, "**SURPRISE!**" Dom blinked as party poppers went off, a camera flash bulb did its flishy thing, and Billy sidled round from behind him, arm around his shoulders.

"Happy birthday, Dom," Billy grinned, his words echoed in green icing on the cake in the middle of the room.

***

8pm

Dom was definitely enjoying himself, over in the corner. Billy knew he was, and watched out from under his eyelashes as he talked to the makeup girl he'd spent most of his lunch hour with. The part when he wasn't trying to find Dom, that is.

"So then my boyfriend said I looked fat in this skirt, and I just _stared_ at him, y'know? And he backed down, of course, but he couldn't come because of his badminton match." Billy blinked, tearing his eyes away from Dom, two words registering.

"Your boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. Okay, I mean, there was ... today ... but yeah, I have a boyfriend. He's nice, you'd like him." She smiled sweetly at him.

Billy laughed. He nodded, said, "I'm sure I would," excused himself, and found the loos.

And laughed. And laughed. And continued to laugh for a very long time.

"Billy?" Dom's voice. Billy stopped laughing. "That you?"

***

9pm

Dom had known that laughter the minute he'd walked into the loos. He'd know that laugh anywhere, just like he could find Billy in a room blindfold. And Billy had come out of the cubicle, tears of mirth still running down his face, and grinned at Dom's quizzical look.

"Can we talk?" he'd asked, giggles escaping. Dom had nodded, and they'd made their way out here.

Dom lay back and looked at the stars. You could see them quite clearly, here on the edge of the town, on the roof of the bar. Nice and flat, for a roof, he mused appreciatively.

"So, she has a boyfriend, and that's why you were laughing?" he asked, squinting at Orion, idly trying to find the belt.

"Well. Yeah. I think I snapped, but, that was so funny." Ah! There was the belt. "I don't know." Billy shook his head, and Dom knew it because the air around his moved.

"Billy," Dom began, taking a deep breath. "So far we've talked about that girl, her boyfriend, your temporary insanity, and the colours of our pens. We've discussed our film until I'd rather not go into work tomorrow morning, and, something's telling me that's not what you brought me up here for." He swallowed, closed his eyes on the Pleiades.

He heard Billy's sharp intake of breath. "Yes." Barely whispered. He heard, and felt, Billy shifting nearer to him. "There was something else. Something..."

Then. Then. Billy's fingertips brushed against his neck. Dom shivered, nothing to do with the cool of the night. He opened his eyes, to see Billy gazing down at him, unguarded, open. He gasped at what he saw there.

Dom telegraphed soundlessly, _I love you, Billy._

Billy telegraphed back, _I love you too, Dom. I have to be with you, to go on breathing._

"Billy..." Dom whispered, raising one fingertip to Billy's lips.

"Did I say too much?" Billy looked anxious. "I meant it, though," he whispered.

"Not too much." Dom shifted, closer to him, whole body, soul, mind, everything he had, angled towards Billy. "You said what I couldn't." He moved even closer, mouth a few breaths away. "I need you," he whispered. _Need you with me. Need to be with you. Love you more than anything_.

Billy kissed him, slowly, fingers tracing _Be with me, love_ on his skin. Dom wrapped his arms around him, and Billy settled over him, every part of him that could reach touching every part of Dom he could get to.

"Do you think they'd mind if I skipped out early on my own party?" Dom whispered into his ear.

Billy chuckled low in his throat. "It's your birthday and you'll shag me if you want to."

Dom breathed in sharp, head back, gazing at him. "I want to," he murmured, tracing the line of Billy's cheek.

Billy pressed against him. "I know," he whispered back, and telegraphed, this time with his hands, with his mouth, with everything he had as he kissed Dom, _I want you to_.


End file.
